Talk:Road 96

Did you know nomination

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Theleekycauldron (talk) 02:53, 27 August 2021 (UTC)

(

• Comment or view
• Article history

)

• ... that advertisements for Road 96 were taken down by Facebook due to being too political? Source: https://www.destructoid.com/facebook-pulls-ad-for-road-96-too-political/

• Reviewed: Template:Did you know nominations/Haku Rakuten

Created by Lee Vilenski (talk). Self-nominated at 15:32, 25 August 2021 (UTC).

• article looks fine, meets criteria. Hook is interesting. Elli (talk | contribs) 17:48, 25 August 2021 (UTC)

To T:DYK/P6

GA review

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

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This review is transcluded from Talk:Road 96/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Nominator: ConfessionalKing (talk · contribs) 16:54, 11 December 2025 (UTC)

Reviewer: Tarlby (talk · contribs) 23:24, 18 December 2025 (UTC)

GA review (see here for what the criteria are, and here for what they are not)

1. It is reasonably well written.

   a (prose, spelling, and grammar): b (MoS for lead, layout, word choice, fiction, and lists):

2. It is factually accurate and verifiable, as shown by a source spot-check.

   a (reference section): b (inline citations to reliable sources): c (OR): d (copyvio and plagiarism):

3. It is broad in its coverage.

   a (major aspects): b (focused):

4. It follows the neutral point of view policy.

   Fair representation without bias:

5. It is stable.

   No edit wars, etc.:

6. It is illustrated by images and other media, where possible and appropriate.

   a (images are tagged and non-free content have non-free use rationales): b (appropriate use with suitable captions):

7. Overall:

   Pass/Fail:

toby

I've seen some clips here and there of this game, but I've never taken the time to actually look into what it's about. The premise sounds pretty interesting though. Expect me to begin soon! toby ^(t)(c)(rw) 23:24, 18 December 2025 (UTC)

Thanks so much for taking on the review, much appreciated! This may be off-topic, but it is a pretty unique game and I do recommend it if you were considering playing it. ConfessionalKing (talk) 00:45, 19 December 2025 (UTC)

Sorry for the long delay. I've been busy with IRL stuff for the Christmas and New Year's Day season, lol. The changes seem good, so I'll start the spotcheck tomorrow. toby ^(t)(c)(rw) 01:19, 2 January 2026 (UTC)

It's okay, it's a busy time of the year so I didn't really think too much of the break. Welcome back! ConfessionalKing (talk) 13:51, 2 January 2026 (UTC)

@ConfessionalKing, we still technically have one problem to deal with here, but I'd rather just pass this now and let you fix it later. Apollogies for all the misreadings or midsjudgements I made here. Congrats! toby ^{(t)(c)(rw)(omo)} 04:12, 22 January 2026 (UTC)

Lead

• The game's release year is missing from the first sentence.
  • Done. ConfessionalKing (talk) 00:45, 19 December 2025 (UTC)
• Link authoritarian.
  • Done. ConfessionalKing (talk) 00:45, 19 December 2025 (UTC)
• The article occasionally flip-flops between saying "players" and "the player". This must be consistent.
  • Done. ConfessionalKing (talk) 00:45, 19 December 2025 (UTC)
• How does the player travel through this "journey"? Is this through a car? On foot?
  • It's explained in the Gameplay section, but most segments are reached by bus, car, taxi, foot, or hitchhiking. ConfessionalKing (talk) 00:45, 19 December 2025 (UTC)
    • The average stay on Wikipedia only lasts less than 4 minutes according to MOS:LEAD, so you should explain this in the lead. toby ^(t)(c)(rw) 18:28, 19 December 2025 (UTC)
      • I have incorporated it now. ConfessionalKing (talk) 19:29, 19 December 2025 (UTC)
• ...were based on those from films and... Typo
  • I'm unsure of what the typo is, can you please clarify? ConfessionalKing (talk) 00:45, 19 December 2025 (UTC)
    • Oh, I misread it! toby ^(t)(c)(rw) 18:28, 19 December 2025 (UTC)
• It was released... Should be "the game" rather than "it".
  • Done. ConfessionalKing (talk) 00:45, 19 December 2025 (UTC)

Gameplay

• Travelling by bus or taxi allows the player to rest and recover lost energy... What is energy?
  • In the game, "energy" level is effectively the player's health bar, if it runs out, game over and the player runs again as another teen. I'm a little hesitant to reword it to "health" as I feel "energy" is a more fitting description (since walking is primarily what causes it to run lower). ConfessionalKing (talk) 19:47, 19 December 2025 (UTC)
    • How you word it is gonna depend on how the sources describe this energy level. If one specifically points out how this energy functions like health, you can say something like "Travelling by bus or taxi allows the player to rest and recover lost energy which functions as health..." That's assuming it even is called energy as you yourself seem hesitent. Again, it's all depending on the sources, so I have no idea. toby ^(t)(c)(rw) 20:55, 20 December 2025 (UTC)
      • I've just changed it to health. ConfessionalKing (talk) 21:38, 23 December 2025 (UTC)
• ...but cost money. Should be costs
  • Done. ConfessionalKing (talk) 19:34, 19 December 2025 (UTC)
• Hitchhiking or walking are free, but may present danger or... What is this danger?
  • The danger in the article refers to the following sentence in the source: Whereas walking or hitchhiking are free, but the former saps you of health while you never know exactly who is going to pick you up during the latter – a lift from a truck driver might be fairly sedate, or it could spiral into violence as you're forced to help him defend his cargo from bandits. Essentially it references that the game portrays hitchhiking as unsafe and unpredictable. ConfessionalKing (talk) 19:47, 19 December 2025 (UTC)
    • FYI, usually when a reviewer asks a question like this, it is necessary to make this clearer in the actual article. Thanks for the explanation, but this is no help to readers. toby ^(t)(c)(rw) 20:55, 20 December 2025 (UTC)
      • Just so we're clear, I wasn't info-dumping, but explaining what it meant so you could guide me on what to do. I've made it more specific now, though. ConfessionalKing (talk) 21:38, 23 December 2025 (UTC)

Plot

• Stan and Mitch are twin brothers and robbers who travel around Petria to find money. -> Stan and Mitch are twin brothers and robbers who roam Petria to obtain money.
  • I've altered the sentence to "Stan and Mitch are twin brothers and robbers who travel Petria in search of money," as I believe "roam" implies wandering (the brothers primarily travel by motorbike). ConfessionalKing (talk) 19:54, 19 December 2025 (UTC)

Development

• Do we know when they started development? The section throws mentions of years around but it doesn't cover when they actually began.
  • Based on the source, I would assume that development started after 2015 ("After 14 years at Ubisoft, Yoan quit Ubisoft in 2015 to create games independently"), but it doesn't definitively say when exactly the game started development. ConfessionalKing (talk) 19:59, 19 December 2025 (UTC)
    • Then I think you can include something like "Development began sometime after 2015 when Yoan left Ubisoft." toby ^(t)(c)(rw) 20:55, 20 December 2025 (UTC)
      • I don't know about that suggestion, it seems like a WP:SYNTH violation. I've attempted to fix it by writing "For the first year of development, anyone on the 15-person team was...", which I think helps contextualize the development a bit better than how it originally was. ConfessionalKing (talk) 21:44, 23 December 2025 (UTC)
• Link communist and Soviet era
  • Done. ConfessionalKing (talk) 19:59, 19 December 2025 (UTC)
• It was funded... Should be "the game"
  • Done. ConfessionalKing (talk) 19:59, 19 December 2025 (UTC)

Release

• You can make this into a subsection of Development considering how relatively short it is.
  • Merged sections. ConfessionalKing (talk) 20:20, 19 December 2025 (UTC)
• The game was first announced in... -> The game was announced in...
  • Done. ConfessionalKing (talk) 20:18, 19 December 2025 (UTC)
• You can link Nintendo
  • Done. ConfessionalKing (talk) 20:18, 19 December 2025 (UTC)

Reception

• No need to repeat the publication reviewers wrote from when naming them again (i.e. Balies (NME))
  • Done. ConfessionalKing (talk) 20:27, 19 December 2025 (UTC)
• Link VentureBeat
  • It is already linked at the end of the second paragraph ("Donovan Erskine of Shacknews commented on how the game's frame rate occasionally dipped and Dean Takahashi of VentureBeat reported that the game frequently crashed"). ConfessionalKing (talk) 20:27, 19 December 2025 (UTC)
• Not in the scope of GA nor something I personally care about, but a review score in the infobox should only be included when the review is actually used in the text. Just something to keep in mind as I see a few examples in there.
  • Removed the Adventure Gamers and GameStar review scores (the others are all used). ConfessionalKing (talk) 20:27, 19 December 2025 (UTC)

Analysis

• Looks fine.

Prequel

• Looks fine

Other

• This is not in the scope of the GA criteria and is not at all something I'm forcing you to do, but I prefer when explanatory footnotes reiterate what they're supporting. For example, on Rain World, I use this text in an efn to support the claim that critics criticized the harshness of Rain World: "These critics criticized various factors of Rain World's gameplay:(insert a million citations here)". Just something to think about!
• A lot of these citations are attributed to "Staff writer". Make sure these are accurate.

Sourcing

Based on this revision, I will check these sources:

• 1 Good, but I wonder why you need six sources to support the first sentence of Gameplay.
• 2 I don't see anything on HP Omen?
  • Fixed (ref 10 confirms it). ConfessionalKing (talk) 00:16, 21 January 2026 (UTC)
• 3
• 4
• 5 This nor #8 describe the minigames as having strategy game elements.
  • The article reads "The segments see the player interact with one of the game's eight core non-playable characters and often incorporate strategy video game elements and minigames." Ref 5 confirms that the segments incorporate minigames ("I don’t want to give much away, but the sudden appearance of all kinds of mini-games, jobs and quizzes in Road 96 is another of its delights, along with their perfectly simple implementation.") and ref 8 confirms the minigames ("Alleviating any anxiety brought on by constant decision making are a healthy variety of fun side activities at each stop along the roadside, whether it’s bartending and petrol-pumping minigames to earn extra money, or assisting a policewoman with an investigation by interviewing motel guests and eliminating suspects based on their responses, like a game of Guess Who?") and the strategy elements ("There’s also some light strategy involved in determining exactly how you’ll proceed from one stop to the next.") ConfessionalKing (talk) 00:16, 21 January 2026 (UTC)
• 6
• 7
• 8 This nor #5 describe the minigames as having strategy game elements.
  • See above. ConfessionalKing (talk) 00:16, 21 January 2026 (UTC)
• 9 The Post requires a subscription, so I will have to assume good competence.
• 10 Don't see an explicit mention of any artificial intelligence.
  • There appears to be a typo in the original article; "Instead, it is the narrative IA who remembers them all and decides what comes next." Safe to assume IA is a typo of AI. ConfessionalKing (talk) 00:16, 21 January 2026 (UTC)
• 11
• 12 Doesn't say that the teenagers cannot change their minds; they can't change their parent's minds.
  • Fixed. ConfessionalKing (talk) 00:16, 21 January 2026 (UTC)
• 16
• 18
• 20
• 30
• 31
• 33
• 36 I do not see where the game's performance is criticized.
  • "Playing the game feels a bit clunky, unfortunately. Although the first-person perspective functions fine overall, there’s an odd floaty feeling to walking around that doesn’t feel authentic.", "During moments when dialogue occurs while running, the camera combined with the NPC bobbing up and down as they run results in challenging option selection, as it completely depends on where the mouse cursor is." ConfessionalKing (talk) 00:18, 22 January 2026 (UTC)
    • This sounds more like weird game design than performance issues, so I still recommend you change this. toby ^{(t)(c)(rw)(omo)} 04:12, 22 January 2026 (UTC)
• 37
• 39 I do not see where character diversity is praised. It actually looks like they criticized the game for it's non-diversity.
  • Removed "diverse", the source does openly praise the characters so it should still apply: "liked the basic humanity of the characters who are instilled with humor, warmth, and kindness — as well as the villains who feel all too familiar as the sort of people making news these days" ConfessionalKing (talk) 00:18, 22 January 2026 (UTC)
• 40
• 41 I do not see where the game's presentation and visuals were mentioned.
  • Taken out. ConfessionalKing (talk) 00:18, 22 January 2026 (UTC)
• 42 Where does this source praise the game for its diverse characters?
  • "The user interface is also unreasonably messy, lacking the more subtle approach that helps its procedural narrative and characters shine so brightly." and, to a greater extent, "The user interface is also unreasonably messy, lacking the more subtle approach that helps its procedural narrative and characters shine so brightly." ConfessionalKing (talk) 17:31, 7 January 2026 (UTC)
    • The characters are certainly praised, but I do not see where their diversity is praised. toby ^(t)(c)(rw) 01:50, 11 January 2026 (UTC)
      • Fixed. ConfessionalKing (talk) 00:18, 22 January 2026 (UTC)
• 44 I don't see where the game won a "Theme of the Year" award.
  • The citation before it confirms this. ConfessionalKing (talk) 17:31, 7 January 2026 (UTC)
• 45 Is this award "noteworthy" enough to mention per MOS:VGAWARDS?
  • Probably not, removed. ConfessionalKing (talk) 17:31, 7 January 2026 (UTC)
• 47 I do not see where it is mentioned that Kaito is from Lost in Harmony.
  • Confirmed in ref 48. ConfessionalKing (talk) 17:31, 7 January 2026 (UTC)
• 49
• 50

toby ^(t)(c)(rw) 18:28, 19 December 2025 (UTC)

@Tarlby: That should be everything addressed now. Thanks! ConfessionalKing (talk) 00:20, 22 January 2026 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.